28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

from the "Ambient Agoras" project being part of the EU-funded "Disappearing Computer"
initiative. The objective of Ambient Agoras is to address the office environment as an integrated
organisation located in an architectural environment and having particular information needs both
at the collective level of the organisation, and at the personal level of the worker. The project
promotes an approach to designing individual as well as team interaction in physical environments
using augmented physical artefacts to support collaboration, informal communication, and social
awareness.
4020.2 Interaction with multimedia in ubiquitous computing environments, J. Borchers, Media
Computing Group, Aachen, Germany
The Disappearing Computer envisions technology to fade into the background and to become
invisible to individual users and collaborating people. This scenario becomes particularly
challenging when the digital information people work with is time-based multimedia data. The
Media Computing Group at the University of Aachen has created a Media Space that serves as a
test bed to explore options for future working, learning, and entertainment environments. It is an
augmented room with multiple interactive displays of various sizes and form factors, spatial audio
installations supporting fluid interaction with time-based media. Components are reconfigurable to
adapt the space to different requirements.
4020.3 A distributed cognition perspective on the next generation of human-computer
interaction, J. Hollan, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
The miniaturization and commoditization of computing components is enabling a world in which
computing is ubiquitous. The most recent trend is the unbundling of the monolithic "computer"
into fragmentary appliance-like components. Ensuring that design of the next generation of
human-computer interaction appropriately respects and effectively augments human needs and
abilities is an intellectual challenge of the highest order. As my part in this symposium, I will
employ example research projects from our lab to argue for a distributed cognition as a theoretical
framework, for cognitive ethnography as a key methodology, and for tools to support multi-scale
interaction and negotiated access.
4020.4 Non-intrusive external communications in co-located collaborative work settings, C.G.
Jansson, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
In the Disappearing Computer project FEEL, we studied the effect of intrusions from parallel
individual and IT-based communication events on a co-located collaborative work setting. The
approach is to diminish the cognitive load of the shifts of attention needed to handle the
communication events. The project developed components supporting-scheduling of
communication events and routing of communications to particular media combinations. The
prototype in the project was tested in a scenario, where professional users experienced in
collaborative work, solve a problem in a co-located setting with strict time-constraints and a great
need for relevant external communications.
4020.5 Experimental reality and the Design of IT-Augmented environments, S. Lahlou, EDF
R&D, Paris, France
Designing environments where disappearing computing creates new affordances goes along with
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